1. Field of Invention
The invention relates generally to aquatic hydrodynamic toys, and more specifically to hydrodynamic toys for underwater travel including flight.
2. Art Background
Children and adults alike, play with toys both in and out of the water. Classes of toys that are highly desirable for play include toys that fly through the air. Such toys by their very nature are relatively light since the density of air is relatively small and therefore will not support a heavy toy. Necessarily, toys designed for airborne flight have large wing areas and are rendered unsuitable for underwater travel and flight.
Attempts at designing toys for underwater play have been made in the past. One such attempt has resulted in U.S. Pat. No. 5,514,023 to Warner titled “Hand Launchable Hydrodynamic Recreational Vehicle,” (hereinafter Warner). Warner's device is a body having a predefined density that is neutrally buoyant in water. Such a device's weight is countered by the buoyant force of the water thereby suspending the device, as such, the device is said to move through the water. Such movement, along a substantially straight line trajectory following a hand-launch is generally confined to a plane.
Many creatures that live in the water dive and surface following curved flight paths utilizing a complex muscle/skeleton system to control their flight through the submarine environment. Current neutrally buoyant toys do not emulate these undersea creatures.
Furthermore, toys that have a predefined specific gravity, equal to that of water, are quite heavy, thus requiring a large quantity of material to manufacture and then an attendant large expense to ship from the place of manufacture to the point of retail sale which is often many thousands of miles apart.
All of the attempts described above do not mitigate these problems. The attempts previously discussed do not solve the problem of providing an underwater toy that resembles a living creature that is capable of underwater flight. Neither do these attempts alleviate the high cost of shipping heavy neutrally buoyant toys to market from the place of manufacture.